it's the nature of the technology, check out any advanced drone forum. It's also far more common to report an issue on a forum than it is to report no issues.
WTF DJI?... WTF!!?!?!@!?!!!! First Spark flyaway
- Thread starter dropro
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it's the nature of the technology, check out any advanced drone forum. It's also far more common to report an issue on a forum than it is to report no issues.
2 times today while flying ATTI mode popped up and my spark began drifting away at a fast rate. The return home button did not work. We re calibrated the compass and I did not have any other issues. I had 12 satellites at the time when I lost GPS and was flying over a lake. Ultimately I put it in sport mode and flew it back by view of the camera.
VIRACO
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My Spark also suffered a Gesture Mode fly away. Long arc, accelerating with zero control. I'll post log analysis later, but DJI did repair the broken frame.
And you should stop flying in the middle of cities around popular tourist attractions. Flying in front of the Berlin cathedral is reckless and you were putting people at risk - regardless of whether there is a problem with your Spark or not. Flying drones where you are not allowed (I am no expert on the German drone laws - but in Denmark this would be strickly forbidden and punishable with jail) will ruin this hobby!
Go fly somewhere you are not putting bystanders at risk.
Have a nice day
Morten
PascalG
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I have to say I would never fly the spark, or any drone, in such conditions like in a city, surrounded by buildings and most critically too many people. It s just way to risky and can get you in serious trouble.
Keep in mind that authorities are going to take these violations more and more seriously due to the increase number of terrorist attacks.
Keep in mind that authorities are going to take these violations more and more seriously due to the increase number of terrorist attacks.
Mikel Manitius
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Sorry to hear of your fly away.
From all of the experiences that I have read about I will never use gesture mode without first having the remote connected (and at least available to me nearby if I don't hold it all of the time). It's a cool gimmick but not a primary aircraft control mechanism.
Second, flying in cities with lots of buildings, glass and concrete around is another problem due to bouncing radio (RC, WiFi and GPS) signals. Did you by chance happen to check what home point was recorded before you took off? (well, I suppose you cannot if you only take off without the remote).
I suspect that many fly aways could in fact be triggered RTH with a bad home point set due to not having a good GPS lock at the time the home point is set... just an unverified suspicion, but I now always "check [my] home point on the map" right after liftoff as the voice suggests.
Did you look at the flight record data? It might give you a clue as to what decisions the active track software was making when it flew away...
From all of the experiences that I have read about I will never use gesture mode without first having the remote connected (and at least available to me nearby if I don't hold it all of the time). It's a cool gimmick but not a primary aircraft control mechanism.
Second, flying in cities with lots of buildings, glass and concrete around is another problem due to bouncing radio (RC, WiFi and GPS) signals. Did you by chance happen to check what home point was recorded before you took off? (well, I suppose you cannot if you only take off without the remote).
I suspect that many fly aways could in fact be triggered RTH with a bad home point set due to not having a good GPS lock at the time the home point is set... just an unverified suspicion, but I now always "check [my] home point on the map" right after liftoff as the voice suggests.
Did you look at the flight record data? It might give you a clue as to what decisions the active track software was making when it flew away...
uasav8r
Active Member
Recently watched a Youtube video of a guy demonstrating this procedure and it failed to shutdown the motors every timeJust in case this happens to anyone else or something else bad is about to happen, the spark has a safety feature built in to it to "crash" the drone. I don't know if mobile is compatible with it or not, it would be stupid if it wasn't. You hold both sticks, or thumb-pad inputs on the screen in this case, down and out or down and in for 1.5 seconds. It will stop the motors effectively shutting down any malicious intent the drone's little (big) brain had
It also gives a fair warning saying it will crash the drone in the manual... My thoughts are just run and catch it before it hits the ground if possible.
DJI Spark Manual
Bottom of page 48 - top of page 49
I have a lot of time on my hands so before I even bought the drone I read the entire manual and memorized most of it...............
I don't think he was doing the sticks correctly. You need to simultaneously pull the sticks at a diagonal direction IN our OUT. Like on startup.
Here's a video of a Mavic shutdown and restart in flight.
Here's a video of a Mavic shutdown and restart in flight.
uasav8r
Active Member
Just happened to me. Just this last hour which is why I am here. Same exact thing happened to me. Off she went...
I was already seeing the headlines: drone decapotates innocent bystanders and crashes through a national cathedral monument in Berlin.
I'm still shaking as I write this. And bleeding also...
Took my spark to a large open square next to the French cathedral in Berlin.
Fully charged, turned on. It told me it had a firmware update. I didn't have a good data connection so I decided I would do it when I get a good wifi signal at the hotel.
Gave me a warning to fly safely in this zone and I acknowledged.
The square was relatively empty so decided I would fly it with gestures.
Waited for safe to fly and ready. Double clicked the button and it took off my hand. But instead of hovering in front of me, it shot up 3m above ground.
Strange I thought to myself....
So it was hovering but camera was not pointed at me and it was too high for hand gesture for positioning so I decided to use the iPhone for control. Moved it a tad. Wanted to turn the camera on, but button was greyed out. Strange again I thought...
Things started to go downhill from here.
I was not confident in the drone so I hit the land button and then slide to land.
At this point the drone tilted and started zooming full speed towards the glass windows of the French cathedral. It was following an arc trajectory while loosing height.
I started running after it like crazy.
I can see it barely missing heads of two bystanders by no more than 10 inches. As it's getting closer to the windows it curves barely missing a statue and continues to curve.
I quickly evaluate its path and start adjusting my run. At this point we are headed one towards each other. I'm determined to take this bird out!
I reach and snap my hands one from top and one from bottom. Propellers dig into my skin; 6 fingers bleeding, but international incident averted!
I am one that promotes safe flight. I don't like it when people fly irresponsibly and I felt in those seconds helpless. This bird was outta control! And worst, this incident with a different outcome, would have made the wrong kind of headlines resulting in more NFZs and more regulations...
WTF DJI?
That's not what we expect of this spark!
Disclaimer: my adrenaline is still running high. I have to check and see if there is a log of the flight and what happened. I'm not sure I clicked land. Maybe I'm confusing this with another flight? Could I have clicked something else? What would make it zoom so fast away from me?
So many questions. So few answers.
Any procedure for retrieving the logs?[/QUOTE]
I was already seeing the headlines: drone decapotates innocent bystanders and crashes through a national cathedral monument in Berlin.
I'm still shaking as I write this. And bleeding also...
Took my spark to a large open square next to the French cathedral in Berlin.
Fully charged, turned on. It told me it had a firmware update. I didn't have a good data connection so I decided I would do it when I get a good wifi signal at the hotel.
Gave me a warning to fly safely in this zone and I acknowledged.
The square was relatively empty so decided I would fly it with gestures.
Waited for safe to fly and ready. Double clicked the button and it took off my hand. But instead of hovering in front of me, it shot up 3m above ground.
Strange I thought to myself....
So it was hovering but camera was not pointed at me and it was too high for hand gesture for positioning so I decided to use the iPhone for control. Moved it a tad. Wanted to turn the camera on, but button was greyed out. Strange again I thought...
Things started to go downhill from here.
I was not confident in the drone so I hit the land button and then slide to land.
At this point the drone tilted and started zooming full speed towards the glass windows of the French cathedral. It was following an arc trajectory while loosing height.
I started running after it like crazy.
I can see it barely missing heads of two bystanders by no more than 10 inches. As it's getting closer to the windows it curves barely missing a statue and continues to curve.
I quickly evaluate its path and start adjusting my run. At this point we are headed one towards each other. I'm determined to take this bird out!
I reach and snap my hands one from top and one from bottom. Propellers dig into my skin; 6 fingers bleeding, but international incident averted!
I am one that promotes safe flight. I don't like it when people fly irresponsibly and I felt in those seconds helpless. This bird was outta control! And worst, this incident with a different outcome, would have made the wrong kind of headlines resulting in more NFZs and more regulations...
WTF DJI?
That's not what we expect of this spark!
Disclaimer: my adrenaline is still running high. I have to check and see if there is a log of the flight and what happened. I'm not sure I clicked land. Maybe I'm confusing this with another flight? Could I have clicked something else? What would make it zoom so fast away from me?
So many questions. So few answers.
Any procedure for retrieving the logs?[/QUOTE]
Seems you deleted the first QUOTE=, It looks like you re-posted exactly the same as the OP.
Did you had a chance to retrieve the flight log as .DAT file from the Spark as explained HERE. You can upload it to something like dropbox and post a link here.
Then it can be checked more in details. There is limited space for these flight records in the Spark, older are deleted to have space for new, so retrieval should be done as early as possible.
You can also do it yourself from the DAT file and plot flight parameters using the CsvView tools available HERE.
Did you had a chance to retrieve the flight log as .DAT file from the Spark as explained HERE. You can upload it to something like dropbox and post a link here.
Then it can be checked more in details. There is limited space for these flight records in the Spark, older are deleted to have space for new, so retrieval should be done as early as possible.
You can also do it yourself from the DAT file and plot flight parameters using the CsvView tools available HERE.
Same happened to me.
While lunching the drone in gesture mode It hovered above my head instead of in front of me and then flow away.
It Hovered at a hight of 5m and around 10m away and then flow back toward me with no control.
The end of the story was..bleeding fingers as well..
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